Museum Knowledge Exchange Programme: Morocco - Netherlands: the after movie

This unique collaboration between Morocco and the Netherlands is organised by the Reinwardt Academy, the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, the Dutch Embassy in Rabat and DutchCulture. The museums are united under the umbrella of La Fondation Nationale des Musées du Maroc (FNM); the Moroccan national foundation of museums aims to preserve Morocco's history and plural identity.

The programme builds on the pillars of knowledge exchange, collaboration and reciprocity, and will consist of workshops, lectures and field visits. The themes are museum management, caring for collections and connecting with the museum visitor. The classes and workshops will be held at the Reinwardt Academy, the institute for higher education on cultural heritage. Our guests will visit the Tropenmuseum and Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Cobra Museum in Amstelveen and the national collection centre, CC NL in Amersfoort. They will also meet with their Dutch colleagues throughout the week to exchange knowledge and share experiences on a reciprocal base.

The curators represent a wide range of Moroccan museums: the Kasbah Museum of Mediterranean Cultures in Tangier; Villa Harris Museum in Tangier; the Kasbah Museum Contemporary Art Space in Tangier; the Archaeological Museum of Tétouan; the National Museum of Music Dar Jamaï in Meknes; the Jemaa El Fna Museum of Tangible and Intangible Heritage in Marrakech, and the Museum of Islamic Art Al Batha in Fez.

Watch our aftermovie:

Ilyas Moumen has been working at La Fondation Nationale des Musées for almost 7 years and is responsible for the scenography and the management of the exhibitions and projects of the FNM. After studying art and interior design, he devoted his career to the field of renovation and development of living spaces before discovering scenography at the FNM in 2016. Since then, he has been able to create and work on several national and international exhibitions in all the museums of the FNM.

Majda Amellal graduated from the National Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage in Rabat in 2018, with a Master's degree in Museum Studies. Since then she has gained extensive professional experience in museums including the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations in Marseille (Mucem) and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, where she had the opportunity to work in different departments (curation, conservation, education and communication). Working in museums, she became passionate about researching, promoting and the conservation of art. In 2021 she joined the Fondation Nationale des Musées in Morocco as an assistant curator at Villa Harris.

Chaimae Imrani joined the National Institute of Archaeology and Heritage Sciences in 2012, where she obtained her Master's degree in 2017. Passionate about art, she participated in the restoration of the workshop of the late Jilali Gharbaoui and the organisation of a temporary exhibition with the association Rabat Salé Mémoire, as a tribute to the artist in the same space. She joined the AEFE Network in 2020 before leaving it in December 2021 to join the team of La Fondation Nationale des Musées as head of the contemporary art space of the Kasbah Museum.

Asmae El Qably is a cultural mediator at the Archaeological Museum of Tétouan. She has a Master’s degree in Museology and Cultural Mediation and has loved culture and museums ever since she was a child. She enjoys talking to visitors, offering answers to many of their questions, and being the link between them and the artefact. Besides her passion for art and culture, she loves archaeology, history, sports and theatre.

Hajar El Bakkari did a Bachelor's and Master’s degree in social and cultural anthropology at the National Institute of Archaeology and Heritage in Rabat. She has worked in different fields such as prehistoric and antique archaeological excavations, and in cultural and social research in different regions of Morocco. She is interested in culture, heritage and arts (particularly music). Before becoming a curator at the Museum La Kasbah for Mediterranean Cultures in Tangier, she worked as a teacher (French and Arabic) and gained experience in event and communication projects.

Always fascinated by the heritage of our country, Salma Benouaicha chose to do a Master's degree in museology, natural and cultural heritage management and tourism development. She participated in different activities like the fossiliferous and museological study of the Atlas in partnership with the University Federico II of Naples, documentary work on an abandoned mine named Aouli, and organising the 3rd partnership meeting of the CHERM Project (with the theme: Integrated approach to prehistoric cultural heritage, case of the Maghreb). She also worked in the commercial field, before joining the Fondation Nationale des Musées as a cultural mediator at the National Museum of Music Dar Jamaï in Meknès.

Alae Fechtali graduated from the National Institute of Archaeology and Heritage Sciences in Rabat, holds a Master’s degree in Responsible Tourism and Human Development (Tétouan), and in Heritage Management from the Universidad De Cordoba in Spain, as well as a PhD in Cultural and Natural Heritage from the Hassan II University in Casablanca. He also has been a temporary professor at the Faculty of Sciences of Tétouan and Chief Curator at the Museum of Photography in Rabat.

Hanae Jerjou studied at the National Institute of Archaeology and Heritage Sciences in Rabat and has a Master’s in Pre-Islamic Archaeology and a PhD in archaeology. She worked on the Mauritanian/Roman site of Volubilis and has been with La Fondation Nationale des Musées since December 2021. The Jemaa El Fna Museum has not opened yet, the inaugural exhibition is currently being prepared. The main subject will be the intangible heritage of the mythic Jemaa El Fna square in Marrakech - a real open-air theatre, with artists, rituals and history that cannot be separated from that of the city.

Do you want to know more about cultural cooperation with Morocco? Please contact our Morocco advisor Myriam Sahraoui, or visit our country page for Morocco.